What a finish!
At 3.15pm, the Paris Bourse was barely up 0.7% (a score of zero over the past week): the CAC had been stagnating below 7,690 since 10am this morning, and was advancing in non-existent volumes... but all accelerated at around 3.45pm, and the index doubled its gains to reach +1.4% and break through 7,730Pts for the 1st time since June 17.7,730Pts.

The CAC40 was propelled by the usual leaders in bullish phases: the heavyweights in luxury goods, with +2.8% for LVMH, +2.5% for Hermès... and +3% for Kering.

On Wall Street, initial hesitation gave way to "cheap buybacks" after Thursday evening's air pocket.

The Nasdaq recovered 1.1%, the S&P500 +0.9%... however, the PPI (US producer price indexes, which predict the rise in the cost of living) was not in line with expectations, and more than offset the sequential decline of -0.1% in consumer prices (CPI down to 3.00% and +3.4% in core data).
The PPI was up +0.2% overall (not a pleasant surprise) and +0.4% in core data (excluding food + energy).
This was to be expected, given the rise in oil prices over the past month, not to mention the cost of freight with the Suez Canal still neutralized.

Friday's session kicks off another eagerly-awaited season of quarterly corporate results, with JP-Morgan, Citigroup and Wells Fargo all reporting.

Their comments will be closely watched as market participants begin to worry about a possible slowdown in the US economy in the second half of the year, perhaps more marked than expected.

On the bond front, T-Bond yields remain stuck at 4.1900% (after jumping to 4.2400% around 2:35pm).
The consensus for a rate cut in mid-September jumped on Thursday from 75 to 90%: it would really take a series of very "robust" growth figures to call into question the 2 X -25Pts scenario by the end of 2024 (we're still a long way from the -6 or -7 X 25Pts of the beginning of the year).
But it is above all the results of the big American high-tech names that will focus investors' attention over the coming weeks.

The tech sector is expected to post the third-highest earnings growth rate of the 11 major sectors of the S&P 500 index for the second quarter, at 16.4% according to FactSet, a performance essentially due to the current dynamism of Nvidia.

The results of the high-tech sector will be all the more important as the Nasdaq has been churning out record after record in recent weeks, which means that the accounts of the "Magnificent Seven" will be an important valuation test from this point of view.

On the European fixed-income market, sovereign bond yields are deteriorating slightly as inflation in France came out at +2.2% in June (and not +2.1% as hoped).
The German 10-year is hovering around 2.49% (+2.2pts), while the French OAT is at 3.1500% (+2.5pts), giving an almost unchanged spread of 65 basis points.
Italian BTPs are holding up better, with only +1pt at 3.7980%.

The euro continues its bullish rally, with +0.2% against the dollar at 1.0890... but it is above all the greenback that has been falling for the past 24 hours against all currencies.


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